TV Critics: Jamie's Comfort Food; 21 Up: New Generation; Who’s Doing The Dishes?

“Jamie’s Comfort Food feels like lingering in the comfort zone for this usually innovative chef. It’s getting boring, Jamie. Perhaps it’s time to pack a light lunch, ask Jules to mind the kids, and take on another Jamie’s School Dinners-type challenge?”
Ellen E Jones, The Independent

“It’s easy to parody Oliver. But the mockney is now less mockable. Moreover, Oliver’s dishes work. What might appear to be an energetic imprecision – a dash of this, a handful of that – is because the recipes are robust and well thought out.”
Michael Pilgrim, The Telegraph

“Jamie Oliver tries to mine an emotional seam with Jamie’s Comfort Food, offering twists on traditional recipes. The trouble is, it’s the original flavours that deliver the comfort.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Jamie Oliver showed us just how privileged we’ve become when it comes to culinary treats. A simple pavlova is now a meringue stuffed with home-made marshmallow; a macaroni cheese now something that contains lobster head juice.”
Alex Hardy, The Times

“Jamie’s Comfort Food is quite elaborate and is prepared and eaten outside in the sunshine, in Jamie’s beautiful garden, with beautiful people, and a gaggle of beautiful geese. There’s birdsong and an outside oven, even a picturesque old phone box. Who needs cheering up?”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“The documentary was intelligently cut, interweaving footage from previous episodes with the new material, which allowed the fascinating juxtaposition of the characters with their younger selves.”
Jake Wallis Simons, The Telegraph

“What emerged here — to the film’s credit — was not so much a portrait of a generation, as a portrait of what a 21-year-old is: a person emerging from someone else’s framework into their own.”
Alex Hardy, The Times

“A seven-year gap at this stage is such a massive part of those lives and they’re barely the same people as last time out. Which is partly what makes it so fascinating. It is incredibly moving already, though – another great big show about people and life.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“Director Julian Farino’s new batch are students and full-time workers, deeply religious Christians and lapsed Muslims, anti-sectarian activists and party animals. They are of Nigerian, Pakistani and Romanian descent and hail from all corners of the United Kingdom. These two films not only reflect a more diverse country, but also a media culture that feels bound to reflect that diversity.”
Ellen E Jones, The Independent

“The formula worked all right 50 years ago when there were striking contrasts between the lives, accents and outlooks of the youngsters. There’s been a lot of levelling in that time, though, to the extent that on the face of things posh Alex in Paris and chirpy John in his Slough tower block might seem to have more things in common than apart.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“This was a television concept created in the laboratory from the bits of other shows that presenters throw away. A sublimely bad stinker of a show. Terrible cooking, ghastly people and witless conversation. Imagine getting trapped in the canteen at The Jeremy Kyle Show. This is worse.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail